got pulled over while carrying

[CAPTAIN MIKE]

..Couple of Hints

# 1: When carrying and driving, it's my habit to keep my license, registration, CCW permit and military ID all in a small pocket above my head in the driver's side upper visor. That way, if stopped, I don't have to reach into a back pocket to retrieve the ID, CCW permit, etc. Makes the officer less nervous.

# 2: When stopped, I calmly keep my hands at the 10 and 2 o'clock position and lower both windows when coming to a stop, presuming that the officer will be coming up on the right side (to avoid traffic danger). Since my sidearm is fairly visible on my right hip in a Yacqui holster, by keeping my hands up and only moving when the officer indicates it's okay, I lower his worry about officer safety and I'm not making any unseen or sudden moves that will make either him or his partner 'nervous'.

# 3: I never refer to my firearms as a 'GUN'. I start by stating that I am a CCW permit holder and that my "sidearm" (less threatening term) is on my right hip and then I ask the officer -- "How do you want me to proceed?" That way, the officer gets to have what he needs -- control of the situation -- and he knows that I am being compliant, and that I'm cooperating with him (or her).

My experiences this way have been positive, every time so far. Twice I have ended up in a friendly conversation comparing my Kimber CDP II 1911 to the officer's duty weapon, etc. In both of those cases I gave the officer my card and said that if he had any friends or family members who needed to renew their CCW, I'd be glad to help them. In the third instance, the officer was polite, professional and told me to look after my right rear tail light. I thanked him for stopping me and letting me know and said I appreciate him "being out here". He told me to have a nice day and sent me on my way without a ticket.

Two of these three instances took place in the People's Socialist Republic of California and one took place in Nevada.

Lessons learned: Cops have a right to be concerned about officer safety and we should do what we can to put them at ease in dealing with us. Also, if a CCW permit holder is polite, professional etc. about things and shows courtesy to the officer, it is more than likely going to be reciprocated.

I realize that not all officers are this way, but my 3 experiences have been good -- and I attribute that as much to my own behavior and attitude as to anything else. I hope these comments are helpful to someone else, and that if so, you can pass them along in a positive way to yet another.

 

[possum]

Also a good Yes sir no sir and acting like you have sense will do alot to get you off on a good note. taking responsibility for your actions looks good to most of them!

 

[Phaetos]

Guess cops around here in Baton Rouge,La are either stupid or wierd. They ask you to get out of your car and meet them between vehicles, facing those damn blinding lights so you can't see their face(if it's at night), and no matter WHAT the weather is, you get out. Stupid to me.

 

[Valkman]

Some cops are cool about it - earlier this year we took off for Arizona and stupidly I went over the Hoover Dam. There a cop told me to pull over for inspection because I have a tonneau cover on my truck. So I go over to where a cop is standing and open the cover for him. Now, there's 2 big suitcases that could have anything in them, but they don't even want to know what's in them. Ok. But the wind is blowing my shirt around and the officer says "Sir are you carrying a weapon?". I said "Yes I am" and he asked if I had a permit. I got it out and showed it and then he wanted to BS for a while! I told him I was a knifemaker and he liked that - it was neat but weird. I guess it's pretty boring standing there all day.

 

[owsi26]

I got pulled over once for a license plate light that was out. (The cop must have been bored that night.) I showed him my license and right next to my license is my CCW permit in case I forget to mention it.

He saw it and asked if I had any guns in the car. I said: "Yes, I have .45 on the back seat, along with an AR-15, another .45 under my seat, and a .45 on the passenger seat." (I had been shooting.)

He was looking a bit concerned so I told him I was a private detective. Somehow that always assures them even though we have the right to carry what we wish. He almost let me go then even before my license had been run.

All came back fine and he let me go. As I drove off, I realized that I forgot to tell him about the .380 on my left ankle! And I had been standing by the car right next to him. Once I bent down to tie a shoe still forgetting about the ankle gun. If I was a bad guy I would have had the drop on him. They don't pay cops enough.

Oh, his last name was Outlaw! Officer Outlaw.

 

[Sportcat]

I got pulled a few weeks ago comming FROM the range and heading out to the woods to workk on deer stands. Needless to say I had two rifles in the back seat of my truck and my glock on my hip.

I never saw the highay patrolman.....

He lit me up and I was pulled over before he got turned around. I cut the truck off and lowered the window and just kept my hands on the steering wheel.

Told him right away I was carrying.... he was like "cool"

He saw I had a HP sticker on my truck.... "who do you know in the HP" he asked.....

"Uh, my father-in-law"

"Whats his name"

I told him..... he was like "I don't know him"..... "slow it down"

I take it you had time to turn the tv off in the dash of your truck???

 

[GRB]

Guess cops around here in Baton Rouge,La are either stupid or wierd. They ask you to get out of your car and meet them between vehicles, facing those damn blinding lights so you can't see their face(if it's at night), and no matter WHAT the weather is, you get out. Stupid to me.

So why are the cops being either stupid or weird? Sounds to me like this type of stop is a bit closer to a felony stop than is usual but maybe that is for officer safety. They want you out of the car therefore, they can see you better, check you visially for weapons, have you unable to run them down with the car, and so forth. Those blinding lights do serve a purpose toward officer saftey too, you sort of already mentioned it "so you can't see..." No it is not because they do not want you to see their face, it is becuase they want you not to be able to see very well at all in the event you pull a weapon and try to shoot them.

Whenever they make a stop, they face the unknown. Better them being safe than their grieving family being sorry.

best regards,
Glenn B

 

[Harry Stone]

Years ago I was driving to a girlfriend's house after shooting at an indoor pistol range. I was hit (after he hit another car) by a kid while I was sitting at a stoplight. The cops show up, and I was told to pull into the parking lot of a KFC next to the intersection. I asked the cop if he would need to get inside my truck. He told he wouldn't have needed to until I asked him that, and what's inside your truck, anyway? I told him I just left the range and there was now empty cases spilled all over my truck and I have a gun in there. I handed him my license and carry permit. He had me wait by his car. He got the report filled out and I waited for quite a while there by his car. He came back to me and asked me what I had in the truck. I told him a Ruger .44 magnum. He asked if it was loaded, I said no. We walk over to my truck, and he asks me if he can see it. This is during rush hour and we're standing in this parking lot on the corner of this busy intersection. I take the gun out of the truck and hand it to him with the cylinder out. He takes it and closes the cylinder and says something along the lines of "this thing is pretty cool" and asks me how it shoots. I tell him it shoots great and it's a lot of fun. He must have forgotten that he had his lights on, he's standing there in uniform with a .44 magnum in his hands and he lines up the sights of my Redhawk at the ground some distance away from him. Immediately thereafter we both hear the screech of tires as two different drivers lock up their brakes on the street behind us. He gets a goofy smile on his face and says, "nice gun". He gave it back to me and we both left.

 

[MikeIsaj]

I don't understand one thing. It has been fifteen years since I've been stopped (said I was speding, I was). In that time I've put about 300,000miles on the road and never been stopped! Am I a very good driver, or are you all just really bad drivers?

 

[hkmp5g17]

I don't understand one thing. It has been fifteen years since I've been stopped (said I was speding, I was). In that time I've put about 300,000miles on the road and never been stopped! Am I a very good driver, or are you all just really bad drivers?

I rather resent the preceding insinuation. In my case-We were pulled over (in my opinion ) because of the appearance of our vehicle- and it's driver- a young Latino male. We were driving a modified Honda Civic "Euro" -vehicles which are often targeted by the police.

Neither of us races nor do we condone such reckless behavior. We were well under the speed limit and obeying all traffic laws. The officer turned on his lights before we passed him ( he was on the shoulder) pulled behind us and claimed our break lights were out-
They were not.

There would have been no way for him to ascertain this since he initiated his pursuit before we passed.

Many people are pulled over because of appearance, location, race gender, etc.

While it is a small percentage of the police doing this it certainly taints the public's perception.

I have been pulled over numerous times for such reasons- and have never knowingly violated traffic ordinances.

I'm sure this is the case for a large percent of those reading.

Your presumption that the driving habits of the previous authors were sub-par is without basis in reality. It is also insulting.

Words often offend- whether intentional or not- and I believe an apology (or retraction) is in order.

Kind regards-Anthony

 

[PokerPro]

Ukraine Train, I would be willing to guess that the officer ran your plate before he turned on his lights or was in the process of doing it when he turned on his lights and so by the time he got to you, he knew to whom the car was registered, that that person was not wanted, and that the car wasn't reported stolen. Once he had your ID and your name matched the information from the plate check, he had no real reason to go back and do it all over again.

hkmp5g17, what are the laws in your state? I take it from some of your other posts that you are in Colorado. I take it that you don't have a permit, hence why you had the gun in the open. I see where a person with a CCW permit does not have to notify law enforcement about carrying when stopped by law enforcement, but I could not find anything that says you have to notify law enforcement when open carrying in a vehicle.

In Texas with a CHL, if you are a passenger in a vehicle stopped for some traffic issue or whatever, the passenger does not have to inform the officer about having a permit and carrying a gun at that time unless the officer addresses the passenger as part of the stop.

So, in Colorado, do you have to disclose that you have a gun if you are a passenger in a car stopped by an officer? I am still trying to figure out the reasoning behind your emphatic attempts to tell the officer, even to the point of disobeying his directive to keep quiet.

I also don't see you shock about the gun being returned to you with a round in the chamber. He simply returned the gun to you in the same manner as he took it back to his car.

But why did he take the "clip" out if his intentions weren't to make the gun "safe" ?

 

[Cosmoline]

I don't understand one thing. It has been fifteen years since I've been stopped (said I was speding, I was). In that time I've put about 300,000miles on the road and never been stopped! Am I a very good driver, or are you all just really bad drivers?

I've noticed a dramatic increase in the number of times I've been pulled over in the past three years as opposed to the '90's. There seems to be some push or effort among LEOs to do more and more pretense stops. Some bright boy has decided that's the way to catch the bad guys. All I know is getting pulled over once every other week and asked for "zee papers" for no good reason is making me feel like I'm living in a police state. Indeed the *only* things they've zinged me on for the past few years are paperwork violations, which is increasingly easy to do as they impose more and more paperwork requirements on drivers. The only actual speeding ticket I got was on my bike.

 

[Phaetos]

So why are the cops being either stupid or weird? Sounds to me like this type of stop is a bit closer to a felony stop than is usual but maybe that is for officer safety. They want you out of the car therefore, they can see you better, check you visially for weapons, have you unable to run them down with the car, and so forth. Those blinding lights do serve a purpose toward officer saftey too, you sort of already mentioned it "so you can't see..." No it is not because they do not want you to see their face, it is becuase they want you not to be able to see very well at all in the event you pull a weapon and try to shoot them.

Whenever they make a stop, they face the unknown. Better them being safe than their grieving family being sorry.

best regards,
Glenn B

I understand all that, there was a hint of sarcasm in my post. Guess it didn't all ooze out enought I just always thought it was strange to me.

 

[ruger270man]

well obviously it was the cops intention to unload the gun, if he asked how to take out the "clip" :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

 

[sam59]

Dumb Cops?

I see alot of post (not all) about the dumb cop did this and that blah blah blah. Then they are all lumped together. Well how about stupid civilians, lets bag on them for awhile.

Officer I am carrying a gun and here it is (pointed muzzle first at the cop) whaaaa he slammed me for no reason.

Officer stops vehicle, driver gets out and walks fast toward the cruiser. whaaa he pepper sprayed me for no reason.

Dumbass walks toward Officer with BB gun rifle, Officer points Glock at DA and informs him he will reach room temperature shortly if he doesnt put down the rifle. DA argues it's only a BB gun and after a short tense discussion puts down the rifle. Whaaaa he pointed his gun at me.

Why did you pull me over, shouldnt you be catching dangerous people. As if a 4000 pound missle driven like a maniac with a cell phone stuck in ear, short skirt, no panties and low cut..... wait a minute that was something else. Whaaa he gave me a ticket.

All true- except for the no panties. It was a thong!

 

[Mtnvalley]

As a new CCW applicant who thought he had his planned approach (for a stop) down before carry class, I'm reading this thread with some interest.

For 30+ years, I've always put my hands on the left side of the steering wheel when stopped, whether day or night. My plan was to immediately tell any LEO who stops me that I'm carrying...but the cop "teaching" my CCW class said that might not be a great idea (around here) since informing them is optional.

He said that if it's a common traffic stop, some officers from one local PD will give you the full on-your-knees, hands-on-head patdown if you tell them you're licensed and carrying...so it might be best to not volunteer that info unless asked, and perhaps they won't even ask. (I made sure that I didn't misunderstand him, as I couldn't believe that a LEO would suggest this).

To my understanding, TN flags your DL number with notation that you have a CCW...so I'd think that the LEO would rather hear it from me early on than learn that info over the radio before he reapproaches me. It just seems to me that "failure to communicate" could theoretically create at worst a situation that all would regret later...or at best some extra and unwarranted stress for one or both parties.

Had it not been a local LEO of 30 yrs service telling me this, I'd dismiss the idea a lot more readily; however, I think I'm just going to stick to plan, inform the LEO very early on, and deal with the chance of folks I know driving by and seeing me "assuming the position" for no good reason. Embarrassment heals quicker than holes, and the instructor may have formed his opinion based upon a relative few "incomplete" reports from former students who had been given The Treatment by this particular PD (while neglecting to tell the instructor of "other factors" about the stop).

 

[AVESguy]

I was wondering the same thing as MikeIsaj . I've been stopped once in the last 20 years, and that was in 1985, on a country road near Davis, Ca. for passing illegally (I did get the ticket). I've lived in California, Maryland, and Florida since and haven't been stopped once. I believe in John Farnam's philosophy of trying to be invisible in public and not standing out, for defensive purposes. It seems to work, as that was the last time I was pulled over. I drive about 15, 000 miles a year, at least, that's 300,000 miles since my last traffic stop.

Why do some people get pulled over all the time, and if they do maybe they should change their vehicle/appearance/driving style? I've never been comfortable with the idea of driving a flashy car, here in S Florida I think it makes you a target- of police AND people with bad intentions.

I know that now that I have posted this I will get pulled over within 24 hours....!!!!

 

[Ukraine Train]

Funny story... so I just got pulled over again. This time I was asking for it, though lol (speeding). It was a MI state cop this time. After I informed him I was carrying he had me step out of the car, put my hands on the roof, and he disarmed me. He took it back the cruiser while writing my ticket then brought it back to me unloaded with the slide locked back.

 

[M99M12]

Any Vermont tips. I ain't been pulled over since I was 20. I figured that I'll just keep quiet. Unless I gotta get out of the vehicle.

 

[Byron Quick]

Over my lifetime I've been stopped a right good bit. I've got leadfoot disorder. I've always been armed. It's never been a problem. No requirement to inform officers in Georgia, so I don't. However, as an officer approaches my vehicle, I don't have my hands on the steering wheel unless it's raining. I have them dangling out of the driver's window while holding my license. I don't want him nervous in any degree. Once, after dropping my wallet, my carry gun was exposed when I bent over to pick it up. The trooper asked if I had a permit. I showed it to him and we talked about guns for about a half hour.

I've also been stopped while carrying a backseat full of longarms which the cop wanted to take during the stop. The cops didn't know how to clear the weapons and I got covered with muzzles every single time. With the cop's finger on the trigger. Maybe cops utilize safe gun handling with their peers and not with citizens on a roadside. Based on my personal experience, it's a wonder there are not dead cops lying everywhere-shot by their colleagues by accident.

I've protested officers covering me with the muzzles of my weapons during a stop. I've received giggles in reply. And wisecracks such as,"Boy, don't you know to unload your rifles?"

I've hunted and shot with police officers whose gun safety skills surpass my own. I've never had an officer who wanted to hold my guns during a traffic stop whose gun safety even reached adequate.

 

[Ryder]

so I just got pulled over again

It would seem something is going on. I guess the govenor has decided to step up involuntary fund raising contributions. Cops are definately on the warpath. I even heard radio commentators decrying this unusual group feeding frenzy the other day.

The Michigan Department of Treasury sent my youngest kid a letter a few days ago telling him to pay them money if he wanted to keep driving. Seems he has accumulated a few points on his license (got a ticket for getting stuck in a driveway that wasn't shoveled last Winter). He's not enough of a problem for the Department of Motorvehicles to take any action though. They've invented a new law for punishing people beyond paying their tickets. Mo money Mo money Mo money! Just incredible.

 

[Sistema1927]

He saw my out of state license and asked what I was doing in MI and I explained. He asked if my school knew I had a CCW....

I am surprised that he didn't say (with a German accent): "Papers,please."

Sounds like this cop ought to take a refresher course on the Bill of Rights. Since when do we need police approval to travel to other states?